And how would you suggest the schools teach the basics, Mrs. Hobbes? Since you said "schools" with no preface, I will assume you wish to include home schools and other types of private schools as well as public schools in your blanket statement.

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

And how would you suggest the schools teach the basics, Mrs. Hobbes? Since you said "schools" with no preface, I will assume you wish to include home schools and other types of private schools as well as public schools in your blanket statement.

I dont think she was advocating teaching the bible but instead posting her observation.

_________________"To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, is like administering medicine to the dead." -- THOMAS PAINE

A couple of years ago, we had temporary custody of a child who was in the 5th grade. We had custody og him the last couple of months of school. He had been flunking all year long. There was no way to pull his grades up enough to pass, yet he went on to 6th grade.

He came home from school one day telling my how they had condom races and learned about blow jobs.

He came home a few days later and told me that they spent the day at the art museum where they had nude exibits going on.

I went to the school and asked them about all of this. I also asked them about his grades and his problems with reading and math.

They said they were not concerned with that right now. I asked them if he was going to be held back. That was when I first heard about "social promotion."

While there, I saw a girl getting kicked hard by another girl outside. A male teacher walked by and did nothing. When I confronted him, he said he was not allowed to step in for fear of harrassment charges.

I have a very hard time understanding exactly how you mean from your example that schools suck.

First of all, reality is that condoms exist, though I'm not sure what a condom race is. Reality also is that blow jobs exist, but frankly I don't believe anyone was getting taught how to give blowjobs. You can't understand that children will be children. And its ridiculous to expect that they will never talk about sex or sexual acts. And please don't say that children being children doesn't include sex because sex is part of life and part of reality.

Also, the thing about the art museum is an asinine comment. What do you think exactly is wrong with seeing nude exhibits?

Another thing I think is that you tend to generalize about experiences you may have had. Schools are not there to raise children. Believe me, as hard as I try, the kids I deal with are usually going to behave a certain way because of their home life. For some of them that means they will be really good students, for others it means they will be horrible, disruptive and rude. That's just the way it is.

I do not believe that any teacher would not stop a child from getting kicked.

_________________You can sing the praises of women all day long, but as long as you put a fertilized egg ahead of [their] welfare, you do not really care about them.-Dori 4/07

He came home from school one day telling my how they had condom races and learned about blow jobs.

Are you sure this wasn't on the play ground and he got the name of the type of race wrong? Didn't you even go to school and ask???????

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He came home a few days later and told me that they spent the day at the art museum where they had nude exibits going on.

Nudes are accepted as art. Sorry to tell you this but the human body is beautiful and there is no reason to make something wrong out of a nude piece of art.

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I went to the school and asked them about all of this. I also asked them about his grades and his problems with reading and math.They said they were not concerned with that right now. I asked them if he was going to be held back. That was when I first heard about "social promotion."

Nah.....there is some miscommunication going on. Someone misunderstood something somewhere. Maybe he had HUGE other problems so the reading and math had to be put on hold......

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While there, I saw a girl getting kicked hard by another girl outside. A male teacher walked by and did nothing. When I confronted him, he said he was not allowed to step in for fear of harrassment charges.

What you saw and what was really happening.....teachers can get in trouble for NOT reporting bullying and the like...Two people can see the same incident - but when asked what they saw - two completely different stories are told....something isn't right here.

1. Condom races are who can put a condom on a banana fastest. I went, asked, and it was confirmed.

2. I went to the art museum and looked at the display. The only difference between that and playboy is paint vs photography.

3. Social promotion is a fact. It exists in this school system. Some of the homeschool moms in our group pulled their children to homeschool them because they were going into 6th or 7th grade while struggling with 3rd grade math.

4. The girl kicked doubled over and was obviously someone who has been bullied quite a bit.

Having been a foster child, I have been to many, many different public school systems. Some of them were wonderful with a few cruddy teachers. Some of them were horrible with a few wonderful teachers.

Your numbered bullets really didn't do much other than prove my initial point. I'm glad the children will know how to use a condom; that will leave us with FAR less unwanted children in this country. Sex is a natural part of life. While I would like 14 years olds not to have it so early, its completely unrealistic to expect they wouldn't. That being said, thank goodness they teach the children how to use a condom properly.

As far as the art, I would just have to say that you must be against art in general or fairly uncultured. There is nothing wrong with the human body and truth be told, playboy isn't even perverted or anything, so you have not proven any point beyond just being a prude.

And yes, after a certain point there is some social promotion in schools. But, what I have found is that those that are eventually promoted to a higher grade it is because they are going to be on a "certificate" bound school career other than a diploma bound one. This is usually children with mental and emotional problems that are so severe it is impossible for school to get them to their "peer level" as far as grades and learning are concerned.

I don't dispute that a girl was kicked...I dispute the fact that you said the teacher wouldn't intervene because of harassment charges. That is absurd.

_________________You can sing the praises of women all day long, but as long as you put a fertilized egg ahead of [their] welfare, you do not really care about them.-Dori 4/07

Probably not, but she was using the thread to throw an insult at public education.

Public education may or may not suck. It depends on the schools and the districts and the state and the feds and the people running the schools and running the districts and the parental involvement and the quality of the teaching ... (Deliberate run-on.)

My kids' current elementary school is wonderful. It's well funded and has lots of parental involvement, etc. But the middle school they could be going to is on the state's "s"-list.

And I don't think either have held any condom races. The 6th grade teacher has been teaching the fundamentals of baseball and sportsmanship in his Friday PE sessions. How fuggin' American is that?

About the only thing that bothes me, currently, is that the k-garden teacher has been singing this Raffi song to the kiddies, and after years of hearing Raffi on the way to dropping the kids off at preschool, I've heard all I can stand!!!